"We have repeatedly said EU observers have a mandate to operate on Georgian territory. But this in no way concerns the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, so we will not admit EU observers onto our territory," Sergei Shamba told RIA Novosti over the telephone.
AFP quoted EU observers working in Georgia as saying Thursday they will not stop their efforts to gain access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia despite Shamba's rejection of their request.
Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 7-8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which, along with Abkhazia, split from Georgia in the early 1990s. In response Russia launched a military operation to repel Georgia's troops from the region, which concluded on August 12, ending up deep in Georgian territory.
In accordance with a French-brokered peace deal, Russia withdrew its forces from Georgian buffer zones ahead of an October 10 deadline. The peacekeepers were replaced by a 200-strong EU monitoring mission in Georgia. Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have refused to allow EU observers on their territory.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in November that Russia had fully implemented the terms of the so called Medvedev-Sarkozy ceasefire plan that ended the conflict.
